Eris Quod Sum
by DefeatTheHuns
Summary: Isabelle Jordan worked for SHIELD up until the Battle of New York. Following her encounter with Loki, she took a year's leave, but now she's back at work and just wants to forget the whole thing. Unfortunately for Isabelle, that's not going to be easy to do when everyone's favourite God of Mischief is stuck on Midgard and causing trouble in SHIELD. She should've stayed in Japan.
1. Prologue

**A/N: I don't own the Avengers, I only own my OC Isabelle. If you have any constructive criticism I would really appreciate you sharing it with me as I am always looking to improve my writing. This is set during and then post Avengers; it ignores the events of all following movies in the MCU. Enjoy!**

The chaos was blinding. My senses were overwhelmed by the noise, the people blurring together in a blinding panic, the smell of smoke. My squadron leader led us to a burning diner that people were trapped inside. I could see bloody hands banging at the windows, and hear terrified screams coming from inside. It took four of our strongest agents to lift the massive piece of debris that was blocking the exit. While half of the team got the victims to safety the other half, including me, went looking for people who were unconscious from the smoke. One we had cleared everyone, we were on our way out when suddenly, half of the roof collapsed, blocking our only exit. I and half my squadron were trapped inside. Some were already unconscious from being hit by falling brick, and others were beginning to wheeze due to lack of oxygen. I looked wildly for an exit.

"Agent Jordan," I heard my commanding officer say from the other side of the blockage, "We can't see any way to get you out. Unless you have an escape route there isn't much we can do for you. I'm sorry Isabelle."

"I understand." I said as I slid down the pile of bricks, most of my trapped squadron lying on the floor dead or dying around me. "Go." With that, I heard my commanding officer shout some orders, and retreating footsteps.

I woke with my head against the cracked tile floor of the diner. The smoke was so thick I could barely see more than about a metre in front of me. There was so much smoke in my lungs, it made my head fuzzy and my vision blur slightly. It almost didn't feel real. Just before I was about to pass out again, a bright blue light filled my vision, temporarily blinding me so I could not see the figure that had come to stand right in front of me. When the blue light dimmed I looked up to see a tall figure, most likely male, dressed in, well, had it been any other situation his clothes would have been downright hilarious, with the intricate looking green and black leather armour and the golden reindeer-like helmet. But I was high enough up in SHIELD to know that the man standing above me was nobody to be taken lightly. The man standing only about a foot away from me was Loki, ex prince of Asgard.

"I would command you to kneel but you seem to already be on the floor. If the rest of the human race was as submissive as you I wouldn't have to go to all this trouble." He said in a tone that was surprisingly amiable. Angry at being called submissive, I spat furiously in his direction. "I take that back." He said with a faint air of disgust. "Oh little ants, how important you think yourselves, yet how insignificant to the universe you truly are."

"You're right. I'm not important. But neither are you. The only difference between us is that you do think you're important. Your statement applies more to you than it ever will I."

"How dare you, you little…"

"Ant? Brat? Swine? The truth hurts doesn't it? Please. I've heard it all before, your insults mean less to me than my life does to you. You call us ants, Loki, but I've been bitten by ants, and believe me, it stings like a bitch. True, one ant can do little but bring pain. But hundreds? Thousands? They can kill. You've screwed up Loki, and the proverbial ants are coming to bite you in the bum."

"Is this how you face your imminent death? With jokes?"

"No. I'm facing my imminent death with metaphors that state very relevant facts, like the fact that you're going to lose,"

"I'll give you one last chance," Loki growled. "Kneel before me and address me as 'My King', or I shall end your petty little life in a heartbeat."

"Does the whole 'submit and I'll let you live' thing ever actually work with anyone? I doubt it, I don't know about you, but I'd rather die standing for a cause than submit to a bratty child throwing a tantrum and most likely die anyway." Loki grimaced at my words and spat out,

"You will die for a cause even if it is lost?"

"A cause is only lost if you believe that it is." To my immense surprise, Loki smirked.

"A fine set of last words." He said and the last thing I saw was a stream of blue light blasting me back against the wall and turning the lights out.


	2. Chapter 1-Nightmare Flights

**A/N: I will try to update as consistently, and as often as I can, but I am a very disorganised person so it may end up that I don't update for months and then suddenly post five chapters. If I haven't updated for a while please DO pester me because it will help me get off my arse and get on with it. I hope you enjoy the story and please review.**

I rested my against the plane window, hoping to sleep through most of the long journey back from Japan. I'd been on leave there for just over a year after what happened in New York, but now SHIELD needed me back, so I reluctantly gathered my belongings and took the first available flight back to NYC. According to the agent I spoke to on the phone, most of it had been rebuilt, and I would be living in one of the newly built apartments with my colleagues and close friends Evelyn and Tommy.

Aside from the prospect of seeing them again, I was not all too happy to be returning home. I definitely could have done with another few months in Japan, and then maybe spent some time in Russia. But no, SHIELD decided that I had been given enough time to get over what happened, and that they needed me back at work. I hadn't been given any details about what I would be doing, but I hoped I would be placed back in my squad with what was left of my old teammates. My thoughts of work and home became less and less coherent as I fell asleep with my head still resting against the small aeroplane window.

_I was standing in complete darkness, I couldn't hear or feel anything, it was like my consciousness was just there in complete nothingness. Suddenly, a bright blue light appeared, and it got bigger and bigger until it completely engulfed me. As the brightness grew, so did my panic, and then I heard someone laughing, loudly didn't even begin to cover the volume, and the laugh had a sense of darkness, it was not joyful, it was sinister and sadistic. The laughing continued, and my heart pounded against my chest, the light blinded my vision and…_

I woke, instinctually tried to jump from my seat, but I was unable to, as I found a belt was holding me back. This reminded me of where I was, on an aeroplane, on the way back from Japan. I ran a hand through my messy hair and rested my cold, sweaty forehead on my palms.

"Hey, you okay?" I looked up to see a man probably in his late forties looking at me with concern.

"Fine." I said a little too quickly, giving him a small smile. "Thanks." Seeming satisfied with my answer, the man put his eye mask back on and soon began snoring lightly. I shifted in my seat, trying to loosen up my stiff muscles, and then reached into my bag to check the time on my phone. 2:48 New York time, we would be landing in about 45 minutes. I sat back and closed my eyes, although I had no intention of going back to sleep. I'd been having the same nightmares since the battle of New York, but they'd gotten worse since I found out I was coming home. They were always similar, with the light and the laughing, they didn't sound scary, but when I was in them it was the most terrifying thing I'd ever experienced. I seldom got more than a few hours sleep each night, and I would often evade sleep completely for fear of the dreams.

I elected to look out of the window for the remainder of my flight; the lights of the busy land below were lovely in darkness, mostly red and yellowish gold, but some blue. I tried not to think about the blue light, every time I saw any form of blue light in real life I would get a small start, the sort of unpleasant feeling you get when you think you have finished going down a flight of stairs but there is actually one more step. When I heard the co-pilot announcing that we would be commencing our descent, I pushed my dreams to the back of my mind and tightened by belt to prepare for landing. I always was an extremely paranoid flyer, I particularly hated taking off and landing, and whenever there was turbulence I would grip the armrests so hard my knuckles would turn white.

In actual fact, the landing, as aeroplane landings go, was not completely horrendous, although the man next to me probably thought I was crazy with the squeak I made when the plane touched down. I was thankful to be near the front of the plane, as I could get off as soon as possible. When the doors opened I swung my messenger bag over my shoulder and hastily made my way off the winged metal death trap.

Having cleared customs fairly quickly, walked into the arrivals zone to see two SHIELD agents whose faces I didn't recognise waiting for me. One was taller than the other, but they were both pretty massive and completely dwarfed me, although at 5ft most people did. If hadn't known better, I'd say they were on steroids too, judging by the fact that it looked like someone had blown them up with a balloon pump, but I knew that SHIELD had a rigorous training program, and also drugs tested all their field agents on a regular basis.

"Isabelle Jordan?" One agent questioned.

Oh great, these were the kind of agents that were basically robots, and only spoke when necessary. Too tired to answer, I jest held up my SHIELD ID badge for their inspection.

"There's a car waiting outside to escort you to your new apartment. Once you have brought your belongings inside and dealt with any other immediate necessities please report to SHIELD HQ."

"How am I supposed to get to HQ, my car was destroyed last year?" I asked irritably, really not in the mood to be dealing with these apparent fools.

"The car will wait for you outside the apartment." Agent #1 said as if he was completely immune to my exhaustion induced rudeness. I decided to call them Agents #1 and#2 because I couldn't be arsed to ask their names.

We walked out of the airport and quickly arrived at the sleek black car that was typical of SHIELD. Agent #2 held the car door open for me and I flopped down on the black leather seat without an ounce of grace. The car started up, and began the hour long journey to my new apartment.

**A/N: Sorry, not much action in this one, but it was kind of necessary. Hopefully the next chapter will be more interesting, but it'll really pick up probably around Chapter 4 or 5. Thanks so much for reading, please follow and review!**


	3. Chapter 2-Home is where the heart is

**A/N: Hey it's Allie, just to let you know, I'm off school for Easter at the moment so I've been getting a lot of writing done. I warn you now, do NOT expect this to happen all the time, I likely won't be updating much after this fortnight as I have exams, but I'll try to get something up each week.****Please follow, fav and review!**

The car eventually pulled up outside a set of very modern looking apartments. Agent #2 once again opened the door for me and I got out of the car and stretched. Agent #1 took my bags from the trunk and walked me to the door.

"Here are your keys, the apartment number is written on them. We will be waiting outside by the car, please be as quick as possible." I just nodded at the instructions and made my way into the building. Once I was inside I checked the number on the keys. Apartment 15a. Oh fantastic, near the top, lots of lovely steps to climb as the elevator had an 'out of order' sign on the doors. On the plus side, at least I would have a nice view.

Having lugged my bags up multiple flights of stairs, I finally reached the door of my apartment. As soon as I let myself in, I ditched my bags on the floor and had a look around. The spacious dining kitchen was very bright, mostly due to the glass wall along the side that overlooked the city. The living room was joined on to the kitchen and to the side there were a few doors, leading into what I presumed were the bedrooms and bathrooms. From the corner of my eye, I spied a piece of paper on the kitchen table. Upon closer inspection, I realised it was a note with my name on it. I unfolded it and skimmed over it. I immediately knew it was Evelyn who had written it, as the handwriting was so messy it was nearly illegible to the untrained eye. Luckily, I had years of experience with Eve's handwriting, so I just smiled to myself and began to read.

_Dear Belle, _

_Sorry we couldn't be there to meet you, Tommy and I have been called in to some work 'emergency' which will probably just turn out to be a broken coffee maker. There's pot noodle in the cupboard and some food in the fridge, but if your culinary skills are as I remember, then I advise sticking with the pot noodle. Oh and remember to BOIL the water first don't just pour cold water in like the last time. Your room is the door on the far right, and it has a small ensuite bathroom, the bed is made if you want to take a nap. Tommy and I are looking forward to catching up later; we can't wait to hear all about Japan. See you later, love Evelyn. _

I grinned at Eve's note; I couldn't wait to see her and Tommy again. However in the meantime, I had to go back down to the car and then to HQ. Maybe I would see them there, we could get a coffee in the small café at SHIELD (well, they could get coffee, I couldn't stand the stuff). I quickly went to the bathroom, and then walked down the stairs as slowly as I possibly could, trying to put off having to meet with my superiors. All too soon I had reached the bottom, and then walked out to the waiting car. In exactly the same way as before, the door was opened for me and I ungracefully plonked in my seat. When the car started and began to drive off, I tilted my head back against the seat, and closed my eyes, dreading what was to come.

Okay, so perhaps I was being a teeny tiny bit overdramatic, but I really did hate talking to SHIELD agents in high places. They were all stuck up and seemed to have had their sense of humour surgically removed. Except Coulson, I had a soft spot for him, but of course, he was… gone. I pushed down the lump in my throat at the thought of Phil Coulson, who had sacrificed his life for the cause, and the public didn't even know about all the good he did. That was the thing that always made me sad when SHIELD agents died. They would never get the recognition they deserved for giving their lives. Shaking the remorseful thoughts out of my head, I realised we had reached the headquarters of SHIELD, and Agent #1 was coming over to open the door. I stepped out, and surveyed the building. I had been there countless times of course, but I had been gone for over a year and I wanted to see if there were any changes. There weren't, except I imagine many more names added to the memorial of all those who died in service of SHIELD. We got into the elevator and went up several floors to what used to be Agent Coulson's office. His name was still on the door.

"Go straight in." Agent #1 said. Shrugging, I opened the door and went in, wondering who would be there in place of Coulson. I shut the door behind me, and before I could turn around I heard a familiar voice, one that I never thought I'd hear again.

"Hello Isabelle." Phil Coulson smiled. "Welcome back."


	4. Chapter 3-Lost and Found

**A/N: Big thanks to everyone who has faved, followed and reviewed, it means the world to me! I'm going to be in London for a few days, so I'm not sure how much time I'll have or if there will be wifi, I will try my hardest to get at least one chapter up but it might not be possible. I promise Loki will come into the story very soon, but I'm not sure exactly what chapter. Although I have a god idea of the plot of this story, and the character development, a lot of the details I'm kind of working out as I go along. Touch wood I think it's going pretty well so far. Please please PLEASE review, even a few words will make my day, you have no idea how much reviews mean to me. A big virtual hug to Puella Pulchra who was my first (and only) reviewer. (I felt immensely proud of my Latin skills when I immediately knew what your name meant;) )**

"Coulson? What… How… Huh?" I could hardly believe my eyes. If I had anything other than nightmares anymore, I'd think I was dreaming.

"It's good to see you Belle, but explanations will have to wait. We have a lot to get through, and I have a meeting with Pepper Potts in twenty minutes."

"Err, sure, well it's good to see you too Agent Coulson." He smiled and continued on,

"Now, for the moment, you will be working in a special branch of research, you can work mainly from home, but when we need you here, we'll send an email. _Please _try to suppress your nature and try to be on time for once."

"Wait," I said, confused, "Research? What about my team?"

"Your team was an evac squadron, something which we have little need for at the present. Besides, we need time to train up all the members."

"Train them? They're some of the best field agents I know!"

"I'm sorry Isabelle I thought you knew."

"Knew what?" I had a bad feeling about this.

"When I said training, I meant the new members. The rest of your original team, they were all killed in the Battle."

"What? I… All of them?"

"I'm sorry. You're the only surviving member."

"Right. Thank you for the information. Goodbye Agent Coulson."

Before he had the chance to reply, I left the room, took the elevator and hurried out of HQ towards the car. I got in and told the driver to take me back to my apartment, not even thinking to wait for Agents #1 and #2.

During the drive back the apartment I thought about my dead teammates. True, I hadn't been that close to any of them, but most of them were good people, and certainly didn't deserve to die. The first half had obviously died in the diner where we were trapped, but this didn't surprise me, I wasn't expecting many survivors there. But the other half of the team? I wondered what had happened to them, did they get the people we rescued from the diner to safety or did they die too? I wished I had stayed to ask Coulson these things, but maybe Evelyn and Tommy would know something, hopefully they would be back soon.

When the car pulled up outside the apartment, I got out and nodded goodbye to the driver, and then proceeded to enter the building and commence my ascent of the stairs. The walk up seemed much quicker now that I didn't have a load of heavy bags to haul up with me, and I soon reached the top, considerably less out of breath than I had been after my last climb, but still quite puffed, thinking that they had better get that or I would go down and try to fix it myself.

Pulling my keys from my pocket, I unlocked the door and it swung open. Shutting it probably harder than I needed to, I leaned back against it and sighed heavily, seriously wishing I was back in Japan. Thinking back to my team, I realised just how little I knew them. There were only twenty eight of us, including me, but I knew less than half of their names. I wondered how many of them knew mine, or was I as much of a stranger to them as they were to me? Probably, I hadn't been with them very long, only a few months in fact. I normally worked in finding people of interest for SHIELD, and occasionally looking after them in a safe house, but a while after the threat of other worlds was realised, more agents were enlisted as emergency field agents, meaning they would not be on active duty unless a serious threat arose, and obviously, one did. Loki.

Of course, I got more training when this was put in place, because although I was pretty good at hand to hand combat and had incredible talent at throwing knives, I couldn't shoot a gun to save my life, and my stamina wasn't great either. I trained with many members of my team, which I had already been placed with, and that was the start of the three and a half moths I spent with my team. Then of course, a while after my training was the Battle of New York. The first and most likely last mission I ever had as a field agent.

Now though, I was back on 'a special branch of research' I knew this would mean doing what I did before, finding people for SHIELD. This work was the main reason for my relatively high security clearance, as not many people were allowed to know what I was doing, mostly because of the somewhat dangerous people I dealt with, but also partially because 'finding people' often involved rather unscrupulous methods, hacking, fraud, infiltration of gangs, the works.

Sighing once again, I moved away from the door and looked for a kettle, to make some tea. Having lived in England before I came to SHIELD, I was raised to drink tea when in a bad mood, and given that I was quite an irritable person, I had become a compulsive tea drinker. I loved tea. There was no kettle, but I quickly discovered that this was because the house had a tap specifically for boiling water. Score. Instant boiling water without having to wait for a kettle, and therefore tea on demand. It seemed that seeing my friends wasn't the only good thing about coming back, I could now add 'tea on demand' to my admittedly short list of the perks of being home.

Speaking of Evelyn and Tommy, I heard them coming through the door and immediately ran over to greet them, newly brewed cup of tea in hand. As soon as Evelyn saw me, her face broke into a grin and she gave me a big bear hug; she was several inches taller than me so she was able to rest her chin on my head.

"It's so great to see you." She said quietly.

"It's good to see you too Eve. I missed you. Both of you." I said as we broke apart, smiling at Tommy, his pale blue eyes lit up at the reunion.

"Come here teabag," he said, and scooped me up into a fond embrace. Teabag was a special nickname Tommy had for me, it came from our first meeting, which was a very strange tale involving teabags and angry SHIELD agents, but that's a story for another time. Once our fond greetings were over, Tommy, Eve and I made our way over to the living room. I curled up with my tea in the comfy armchair and the other two sat on the big couch.

"So," Evelyn began excitedly, "Tell us all about Japan!"

"Oh, it was amazing, I've always wanted to visit, and my Japanese was getting a little rusty, so it really helped to speak it again. There were so many cool places, like in Tokyo, there was this Pokémon café, and all the food was themed, it was one of the coolest places ever! And I went to _loads_ of anime conventions, you should have seen some of the cosplays they were totally awesome!"

"Wow, sounds like a nerd's dream come true." Tommy teased.

"It was, and I don't think I've ever eaten so much! Japanese candy is _amazing _I brought some back for you guys."

"Yes Isabelle!" Evelyn said in delight and punched the air.

I laughed and said, "So, anyway what've you guys been up to? Anything exciting?"

"Nowhere near anything as cool as you, the most excitement we've had all month was when the coffee maker broke and sprayed decaf all over Agent Winters." I burst into a fit of giggles at thought of stern, efficient Emily Winters covered in decaffeinated coffee.

"Oh dear what I wouldn't give to have seen that!" I managed to get out in between bouts of breathless laughter.

"Well you might be able to," Tommy mused, "If we could persuade Ethan from security to get us the CCTV footage from that day. I'll ask him when I go in to work tomorrow."

"Speaking of work, what was so urgent that SHIELD had to drag you in on your day off?"

Evelyn's face darkened ever so slightly, but Tommy was quick with an answer, "Nothing important, just some paperwork that we had to sign."

"Couldn't that have waited until tomorrow?" I asked sceptically.

"No, it couldn't." Tommy said shortly. There was a brief awkward silence until Evelyn spoke again, "It was a sign off on a report of a recent mission, and it had to be given to administration today. You know how SHIELD is, bureaucratic nightmare."

"Yeah, I guess so." I answered dismissively, still unconvinced, but far too tired to delve any further into the subject. "Anyway, I'm pretty tired so I think I'm going to head off to bed."

"Sure, you know which room it is?" Evelyn asked, brightening up again.

"Yeah, the one on the end right?"

"That's the one. You need anything?"

"No I should be fine, night guys."

"Goodnight Belle!"

"Sleep well teabag!"

With a faint smile, I padded down to my room, and was so tired I didn't even think about the strong likelihood of nightmares before I fell into the deep abyss of sleep.


	5. Chapter 4-Fun and Games

**A/N: Really sorry I haven't updated for so long, I've been quite ill but here's a chapter for you now, I hope you like it. Thanks so much to AmalieNico and literaturelife7 for reviewing, it made me so happy and it made an otherwise shitty day much better. Embarrassing, I know. Please continue to follow, fav and review!**

I awoke to the sound of a loud crash and swearing. Too tired to get up and investigate the commotion, I rolled over determined to fall back to sleep, but the crashing continued, so I huffed angrily and crawled out of bed, curiosity getting the better of me. I entered the kitchen to the sight of water spraying everywhere, and Tommy trying to plug what looked like a burst pipe while Evelyn cursed and screamed.

"What the hell is going on?" I yelled over the racket of Evelyn and the water.

"The pipe burst! Again!" Tommy shouted back to me, while avoiding jets of water.

"Call a bloody plumber then!" I said, exasperated.

"What?" Tommy roared.

"I said call a- oh never mind." I let out a sound of frustration and went to get my phone to call an emergency plumber.

Once the pipe had been fixed, and most of the water mopped up, Tommy and Evelyn announced that they had to head into work.

"But it's Sunday! And I'm only just back, I was hoping we could spend the day together!" I protested.

"I know, it sucks, but we can't exactly argue with Fury." Eve reasoned. "And besides, we won't be in all day, we can do stuff later, go out for dinner or something?"

"Fine," I said perhaps a little childishly, "But what're you doing anyway? It must be pretty important if Fury's involved." When Evelyn got the same look on her face as the night before, and Tommy took a sudden interest in his shoes, I knew something wasn't right. "Okay, spill, you two are keeping something from me, what is it?"

"Nothing!" Tommy laughed anxiously, "Paranoid much?"

"Don't try and play this off Thomas Campbell, I know something's up, and you're going to tell me what it is!" My voice got louder as I got more annoyed.

"Look Belle," Eve said soothingly, "We're not allowed tell you anything right now, but you'll find out soon I promise."

"Oh yeah? How soon is soon?"

"A few days at most, but it probably won't even be that long. Hell, it might even be today, I don't know what Fury will decide."

"Whatever," I scoffed, "You better go, or you'll be late."

"Oh come on Teabag…" Tommy started but I cut him off,

"Listen it's fine, go." With that I sauntered back into my room, lay on my bed and put my headphones in. As soon as I heard Tommy and Evelyn leave, I pulled them out and plugged my phone into the speakers, blasting music throughout the apartment, and probably everyone else's too, but frankly I didn't give two shits. I decided that unpacking my things would be a good way to pass the time, but unfortunately it didn't take me as long as I had hoped, and I was at a loose end once again.

Fed up of hanging around the apartment, I took the spare set of keys from the table and went out for a walk, mainly to see how much of the city had been rebuilt. I was surprised at how quickly the construction had happened, as it barely looked like there had been an attack at all. I walked for a long time, wrapped in meaningless thoughts when something, I wasn't quite sure what, dragged me back to reality. Realising where I was, I stopped dead. Right next to me, was the very place half of my teammates had died. The diner. It had not been completely rebuilt yet, so public access was forbidden, but even if I could go in, I didn't want to.

My breathing sped up, as memories of blue light, blood and Loki flashed through my brain. My throat felt like it was closing up, and in a sudden moment of extreme panic, I turned and sprinted back down the street. I ran pretty quickly for a considerable length of time, but after a while the fear began to fade, so I slowed to a halt and tried to work out where I was. At the sight of a familiar bar, I got my bearings, and found that I had run nearly all the way back to the apartment. Getting my breath back, I realised that I was quite thirsty, so I wandered into the bar for a drink. It was actually pretty late, and neither Eve nor Tommy had called to ask where I was, so I presumed they were still at work. Why shouldn't I have a little fun?

After I had finished my beer, the bartender put a strangely coloured cocktail down in front of me. Confused, I said, "Erm, sorry I didn't order this."

"You didn't. It's from the lady over there." He inclined his head towards the corner of the room, where a blonde head was bent over a book. I shrugged, took my drink and made my way over to the booth she was sitting in. I slid in opposite her and she looked up and smirked. Without saying anything, I lifted up the cover of the book she had abandoned; 'A History of God by Karen Armstrong.'

"Interesting book," I said, "I read it back in college, very insightful."

"Yeah, I'm enjoying it so far, I usually find the authors of books about religion irritating, but I actually quite like her."

"I thought the exact same thing!"

We continued to talk about the book for a while, she introduced herself as Grace, and I falsely told her my name was Sophie. Grace was, much to my delight, very attractive. Her hair was blonde, but not disgustingly platinum, and her eyes were an extraordinary blue-green colour. But it wasn't her eyes that were distracting me, it was her mouth. She had the most perfectly shaped rosebud lips, and an irresistible smile. I was so busy staring at her, I didn't realise she had stopped talking and was looking at me with amused eyes. "Am I boring you?" She teased.

"Oh God no, quite the opposite."

"Oh really?" She said in a somewhat hushed tone as she leant a little closer to me. "You seem distracted."

"Trust me, you are holding my complete, undivided attention." My voice was lower and she glanced down at my lips. Just as I thought she might kiss me, she grinned and said,

"Great, then let's get shots."

I was far too drunk from my countless shots to know what time it was or I how I had got there, all I was aware of was her lips on mine, her well-shaped body pressing mine against my apartment door. I briefly wondered whether Eve and Tommy would hear us, but that thought was chased out of my head when she whispered "Bedroom," in between kisses. Needing no further encouragement, I lead her over to my room, thankfully getting the right one. We stumbled inside and I quietly shut the door.


	6. Chapter 5-The Soda Bottle

**A/N: Hi, so sorry it's been a while (understatement of the decade) but I'm back now! Great big thank you to AmalieNico for reviewing, it was the only thing that kept me motivated to write. Thanks to everyone who has faved, followed and reviewed so far, and please continue to do so. Also I really do want criticism, it makes me write better. **

_Blue light, cruel laughter and a cold, distant voice, 'Run away little girl.' _

I awoke to rays of bright light coming in through the windows. Although I briefly wondered why the blinds were open, I soon remembered as I glanced to the imprint next to me in the bed. I wasn't surprised about waking up to an empty bed, in fact I was relieved more than anything else. I hated the one night stand awkwardness that occurred when someone decided to stay, or didn't wake up early enough to sneak out. I sat up, but as soon as I did I was hit with a killer headache. Clutching my head, I groaned quietly and decided that I needed an aspirin. Hoping that there would be painkillers of some sort in the bathroom cupboard, I stumbled across the room and found my way to the bathroom. My eyes were blurry with sleep as I was opening the small white cabinet, so I rubbed them to clear my vision, just in case I accidentally ingested a Plaque Disclosure tablet instead of aspirin. I rummaged around the cabinet until I finally found the box and pulled it out victoriously. Swallowing two pills, I padded over to the boiling water tap, got out a mug, put a teabag in and filled it with water. Once I had infused the tea into the water, I added exactly one and a half teaspoons of sugar. Content, I wandered over to the sofa, where I was expecting to plop down on comfy cushions, but instead sat on something hard and lumpy. The lump squealed and pushed me off the sofa. Setting down my miraculously unspilled tea, I turned to see that the lump was in fact Evelyn, whom, by the look of her, had been fast asleep until I inelegantly sat on her.

"What the hell Evelyn!" I hissed at her, "You know you have a bed right?"

"Get off your fucking high horse Isabelle, where were you last night? You didn't answer any of our calls, what happened to us having dinner together?"

"What happened to telling each other about our lives?" I snapped back in response.

"_What?_" She cried indignantly, "Are you seriously still mad about yesterday?"

"I'm mad about my friends keeping secrets from me!"

"For God's sakes Isabelle we're SHIELD, keeping secrets is literally in our job description."

"Not from each other!" I yelled back at her, "What on God's green earth could be so desperately important that you have to wait for Fury to tell me! I don't understand why you can't just-"

"It's a case!" She burst out.

"A case?"

"A really serious one, that's why we've been working so much," she sighed, defeated. "I've already said way more than I'm supposed to, but Fury told me to tell you to be in his office at eleven today so he can brief you."

"Eleven? Shit! I've got to get dressed."

Hangover all but forgotten, I charged into my room, pulled on my suit and tied my hair up. I briefly considered putting on makeup, but realised that I didn't have enough time. Satisfied that I looked somewhat acceptable, I ran out to grab my bag off the table where Evelyn was waiting for me.

"Do you want me to go with you?" She asked gently. It was probably a combination of lack of sleep and her patronising tone that made me snap back,

"No, I don't. Stop treating me like a bloody child Evelyn."

"I will when you stop acting like one! Ever since you got here you've been demanding attention, just like the same, attention seeking little brat you've always been!"

"Fuck you Evelyn! Fuck you!" I yelled and stormed out of the apartment.

The journey to SHIELD HQ was a blur as I replayed my fight with Evelyn over and over again in my head. I couldn't understand why we were arguing so much, before the battle of New York we barely ever fought, so I eventually came to the conclusion that being zapped by Loki probably messed with my head and made me more argumentative. Attempting to push all my personal troubles to the back of my mind, I took a deep breath and entered HQ.

One of the things I noticed as I made my way to Fury's office was that the building was surprisingly quiet; I only passed two people on my way up. In fact, the building would have been nearly empty if it weren't for the extra guards posted around the place. Weird. I walked up the stairs painfully slowly so as to avoid my meeting with Director Fury for as long as possible; I had only met him in person once but the man scared the bejesus out of me. I wasn't like he did anything particularly terrifying (except the one eyed glare thing) but he just had this really intimidating presence that commanded obedience. Although, my fear of Fury was intertwined with a deep respect, unlike the sort of fear I had for people like Loki, which was more of a deep crushing terror than anything else.

Despite procrastinating in every way possible, I eventually reached Fury's office, which I had never actually been in. My morbid curiosity about what his office looked like compelled me to knock on the door straight away instead of waiting around at the water cooler across the hall like I had planned. After waiting for what seemed like hours, but was probably only thirty seconds for an answer, I knocked again. And again. And again. Still no answer. Frustrated, I tried the door which was of course locked, forcing me to accept the fact that Fury wasn't there, and I wouldn't be getting a sneak peek into the office of SHIELD's big cheese. It was only after a few minutes of deliberation about what the hell was going on that I noticed the large yellow post-it note stuck to the water cooler. It simply read:

'_Change of plans, meet in conference room seven- Director Fury'_

Shrugging, I lazily took the elevator up to the next floor and made my way to C7, but did a double take when I saw who was leaning against the wall outside. He looked uncharacteristically serious and held my work mug filled with tea, which made me instantly suspicious. People only made me tea in my favourite mug if they wanted something.

"What do you want Stark?" I said warily as I took the mug from his outstretched arm, "And why have you got a face like a slapped arse?"

"Isabelle," he began carefully, "We need you to do something that you're not going to like, but you need to be the bigger person here."

"Fine, just tell me what it is, because Eve and Tommy have been acting really weird about it, and-"

"It's Loki."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Loki."

"Yes, I heard you the first time, 'what' was short for 'care to elaborate?'" I growled out, trying and failing to remain collected.

"Y'know, just do what you do.'

"Do what I do?"

"Yeah, acclimatisation, safe houses, the works."

"You want me to take Loki, the man who murdered _thousands of people_," I ground out, "And you want me to _acclimatise him._" At this point, a good way of explaining my feelings was a bottle of soda. Inside was all the rage, fear and hurt I'd kept inside about Loki and what he did to me, right now this news was shaking it. Really, really hard.

"Look kid I don't like it either but-" And with that, the proverbial soda bottle exploded.

"Oh you don't like it? Well good for you, but with all due respect Tony, you're not the one that's being forced to bloody live with him!"

"Isabelle," He sighed. "Please just cooperate for once in your goddamn life." He looked tired. And not 'I partied too hard' tired, he was the type of tired that you feel in your bones, the type that drags you down and makes your shoulders sag. With everything that had happened, a lot of SHIELD agents and their affiliates looked that way. I knew this feeling all too well, which is what made me soften slightly.

"Let's just go in okay?" I grumbled. Not bothering to hide his relief, he moved to open the door, but I stopped him.

"Wait, is... is _he_ in there?" I said with some hesitation. Tony shot me a pitiful glance before reassuring me,

"He's completely powerless, he can't hurt you."

"I know, it's just…I um…"

"If you really can't do this, we can arrange a different day."

"No it's fine. He hasn't beaten me. He won't. Ever."

Holding my head high, and settling into a determined, somewhat aloof persona (a habit learned from my parents) I marched into the conference room, internally preparing myself for every possible scenario.


End file.
